While Tucker’s name has surfaced in trade talks with playoff contenders, he’s not opposed to remaining with the Suns long-term.

“Phoenix has been great to me,” Tucker told Basketball Insiders in a video interview a month ago. “I’ve been here five years. It’s been a great five years, somewhere I would love to be for a long time.”

Tucker has remained one of the league’s best on-the-ball defenders. Veteran teammate Jared Dudley has publicly praised Tucker’s defense and vouched for him to make the NBA’s All-Defensive Team.

https://twitter.com/JaredDudley619/status/808902239989407745

Coach Earl Watson has also praised Tucker’s defense.

“The thing about defense is there’s no perfect technique,” Watson said before facing the Knicks at Madison Square Garden a month ago. “It’s all on intensity, passion, toughness and a lot of heart. He plays with that every time he touches the court. He’s one of our best players. To me, he’s the most underrated defender in our league, especially on isolations. I think our isolation defense kind of speaks for itself because of him.”

While he may not be one of the “sexy” names on the trade market, Tucker’s hounding defense and versatility are what teams desire, and why he’ll remain in the headlines with the NBA’s trade deadline looming on February 23 at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Right behind Minnesota and Rubio is Phoenix shopping Brandon Knight’s contract. Amidst an extremely disappointing season, Knight has three more years left on his deal following this season, with an average salary of $14 million per year.

The Suns should be able to find a trade partner willing to take a risk on Knight.

The Celtics have identified a small group of role players they could have interest in acquiring, and Suns forward P.J. Tucker is among them.

But Boston will not go overboard or hinder its flexibility chasing these deals, and it has no plans to relinquish a future first-round pick for a player like Tucker, who would simply offer some assistance off the bench, a source said.

Utah is all-in to keep Gordon Hayward, but they also need to shed some salary before their army of young players ink pricey new deals. They've tested the market for Derrick Favors over the last few weeks, according to several league sources; Favors hasn't been quite the same since coming back from injury, and Utah plays Favors and Rudy Gobert together for only 10 or 12 minutes per game.

The Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics can be expected to talk before the Thursday trade deadline about a deal that would send center Andrew Bogut to Boston in exchange for one of the Celtics’ trio of No. 1 picks, an NBA source tells us — but only dependent on what bigger move Boston can make.

The Knicks currently have nothing strong on the trade front for Anthony, a source told The Undefeated. One NBA general manager told The Undefeated that the Knicks told him they don’t believe Anthony would waive his trade kicker.